James Bulger's mother: killers were 'rewarded' for killing two-year-old in 1993

The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger says his killers were not punished but “rewarded” for their horrific crime.

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were given new identities and granted lifelong anonymity when they were freed on licence in 2001.

Denise Fergus said she never wanted them jailed for the rest of their lives for the torture and murder of her two-year-old son in Liverpool in 1993, when they were both 10 years old.

But speaking in a new documentary Ms Fergus said: “I’ve never had justice for James.”

She told Sir Trevor McDonald: “I never said ‘lock them up and throw away the key’. I thought doing a proper sentence in a proper prison would be justice for James. But that never happened.

“They never got punished for what they done. In fact, if anything, they were rewarded.”

Venables was returned to prison in November, having been charged over indecent images of children for a second time.

Ms Fergus said: “I did say that if they weren’t punished properly, then they would go on to re-offend and that’s exactly what happened with Venables.”

The documentary, James Bulger: A Mother’s Story, will be broadcast on ITV tomorrow night, 25 years after the toddler was abducted from Bootle Strand shopping centre.